Microsoft Wants to Swallow Yahoo
February 3, 2008 by Gurmit BalOn Friday, Feb 1, 2008, Microsoft announced that it is making an offer to Yahoo Inc. shareholders to buy the company for $44.6 billion (US) in cash and stock. It made the announcement after sending a letter on Thursday, Jan 31, 2008 to Yahoo Board of Directors.
While there are doubters, the general feeling is the bid will likely succeed because of the lack-luster performance of Yahoo. Taking advantage of the general dissatisfaction of Yahoo shareholders, Microsoft made the hostile takeover bid in hopes of increasing its Internet search business share.
Will this Acquisition Benefit Microsoft
It’s no secret that Microsoft feels threatened by the dominance of Google and it desperately wants to increase it’s share of the web search business. It has been trying to do this for the last several years without any measurable success. So it’s trying to do what it best; expand by swallowing others.
By taking over Yahoo, it hopes to face up to Google but that is no sure thing. Yahoo itself swallowed a few like AltaVista, Overture etc. but still failed to become the leader. If Microsoft does succeed in taking over Yahoo, it will still take years to integrate the two giants and pose any serious challenge to Google. Lets wait and watch. Times are sure going to be very interesting for the next little while.
